Norad prepares for Santa's annual flight

North America's joint airspace defence organization is gearing up for another busy night as Santa makes his way over Canada on Christmas Eve.

The jolly old elf held a special pre-flight operational briefing with Norad officers this morning in the Combined Aerospace Operations Centre at 1 Canadian Air Division headquarters to plan out his route once he hits Canada's east coast.

Norad uses its north warning radar system to track Santa all over the continent and deploys two CF-18s to escort him and his reindeer into Canadian airspace.

"On Christmas Eve we take special care to make sure we look for that sleigh coming out of the North Pole and give him extra special treatment so that all the children throughout the world who have Santa in their hearts are not going to be disappointed on Christmas morning," Lieut. Col. Dave Dixon told reporters at the briefing.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments.
All you need to do is be a Winnipeg Free Press print or e-edition subscriber to join the conversation and give your feedback.